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Neil Barsky

Creator & Executive Producer

Neil Barsky is the chairman and founder of the Marshall Project, a non-profit journalism enterprise that covers the American system of criminal justice with the goal of sparking a national conversation about reform. He has enjoyed a varied career in the fields of journalism, finance and film. He has been an award-winning newspaper reporter, working for the New York Daily News and the Wall Street Journal. Later, he embarked on a career in finance, and served as an equity research analyst in the areas of real estate, casinos and hotels for Morgan Stanley. Neil next went on to build two hedge fund businesses, Midtown Capital and Alson Capital Partners. He retired from the money management business in 2009. Neil directed and also produced the critically-acclaimed documentary film KOCH, which aired nationally on PBS's POV series. He also recently taught economics at Oberlin College. Neil is a graduate of Oberlin College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Employing the highest standards of video production, “We Are Witnesses” captures the enormity of the jail-court-prison complex, while keeping an intense focus on the individual lives affected and provoking dialogue around criminal justice reform. Judges praised its “innovative” approach to storytelling, exploring “multifaceted trauma” from “many different angles,” and “refusing cliché at every level.” The series was created by The Marshall Project in partnership with Participant Media, The New Yorker, and Condé Nast Entertainment, and ran on both The Marshall Project and The New Yorker websites.